assuring grandly, “I forgive you, dear, and I’m sure Jessica will, in time. I always knew deep down you were a gentleman. Breeding always tells!” She sighed, and clasped her hands to her breasts. “I’ve heard your house is simply exquisite. I can’t wait to see it for myself.”
Jess blocked out the rest of her mother’s ramblings, and shrinking lower in her seat, she squeezed her eyes shut. Now Lucas knew everything there was to know about her—the irrational hatred she’d harbored for him for the past five years, and the sad truth about her mother’s deteriorating mind. But most distressing of all were the things he’d heard her say tonight—the erotic things she’d cried out as he’d brought her to climax after exhilarating climax. Her stomach clenched at the white-hot memory, and she wished she were dead. Why must there be five days of this dratted retreat left—five horrible, humiliating, endless days? And now her mother would be there to make them even more humiliating and horrible—and endless!
Jess settled Mamie in the room opposite hers, then caught Lucas in the hallway. Her emotions had run the gamut tonight. She was exhausted and upset, and she had the worst headache of her life. Her anger with herself for her stupid attraction to Lucas gnawed at her. And to add insult to injury, she was having to deal with the nagging shame over her mother’s condition.
What she really wanted to do was to fall into his arms and have him hold her, tell her everything would be all right. She wanted him to be gentle and concerned. Her whole body quivered with the desire to have him kiss her soundly and tell her he cared, and that she would never have to feel like a lonely failure again. She wanted to hold him to her and tearfully thank him for being so sensitive about her mother. Unfortunately, their hot sex on the computer-room floor came back to haunt her, and she knew any rekindling of that earlier scene would be foolhardy.
She wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand to hide a sudden welling of tears. “Look,” she hissed, urgently, “I—I appreciate what you did, but I don’t want your pity and neither does my mother.”
The tensing of his jaw betrayed his sudden umbrage. After a taut silence, his lips twisted cynically. “Baby, I don’t think you know what the hell you want. You hate me, but you have sex with me?” His chuckle was bitter and angry. “I wonder if there’s a Hallmark card for that—maybe, ‘Hi there, I hate your guts but I’m horny, so drop trou—!’”
Jess flinched at the ferocity of his words, though they had been spoken barely above a whisper. “Lucas, it’s true,” she tried weakly. “I did hate you, but since we’ve gotten to know each other, I—”
His laughter sharp and brittle, he cut her off. “Know each other?” he echoed incredulously. “That’s quaint.” With a lightning-swift move, he swept a provocative finger between her legs, growling, “Yes, I’d say we’d gotten to ‘know’ each other, baby.” Turning abruptly away, he stalked off toward the stairs.
Jess sagged against the wall, her body resonating with the hot, tingling sensations he’d so calculatingly set pounding in her core. She balled her fists, her nails biting painfully into the flesh of her palms, feeling thoroughly shamed.
11
The morning crept by with the speed of a turtle on its back. Representatives from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State gave presentations about career opportunities. The kids were attentive, and best of all, Lucas was gone.
Since Jess hadn’t had any sleep, most of her morning had been spent struggling to keep from falling off her chair in a heap. She imagined Lucas must be having the same problem at his office. Today was Careers and Crafts Day, so he’d been granted time off.
She was managing to keep awake with lots of coffee, but the Goodalls and the Kornblums were giving her odd looks. She didn’t blame them. Every time they smiled at her, she yawned back.
“Madam?” Maxim inquired, startling her from her fuzzy ramblings. She leaped a foot off the chair and gasped. All the kids twisted around to rubberneck. Howie Goodall stopped in the middle of his talk about the joys of leather craft, and stared in confusion.
She bit her lip, mumbling, “Excuse me. Please—go on, Howie.” She hated having to face the butler, who knew what a sinful night she’d spent with the master of